EPL Matchday 33 of 38 West Ham United 0 Chelsea 1 match report.
West Ham United 0 Chelsea 1 – London stadium – Saturday, 24 April 2021
Timo Werner's first-half strike put Chelsea three points ahead of hosts West Ham in the race to the Top 4 of the Premier League.
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[/su_panel]Thomas Tuchel's men coming to the London stadium on equal points with the Hammers, had their moments early on when Christian Pulisic struck Werner's low center straight to rival keeper Lukasz Fabianski and Werner turned Mason Mount's cross over the bar from just twelve yards away.
Werner missed a golden opportunity to put the Blues ahead 2-0, minutes into the second half when Fabianski spilled Mason Mount's long-range effort into the path of the German, but he skewed his effort wide of the post from a mere six yards out with just the goalkeeper to beat.
The Hammers sprung to life as Ryan Fredericks had his goal bound effort blocked by Mount and Jesse Lingard's floating half volley missed the left-hand post by inches.
But just when West Ham were beginning to see more of the ball and press forward for an equalizer, their task was made suddenly very difficult by the expulsion of Fabian Balbuena with nine minutes of play to go.
The Paraguayan center-back's foot caught the leg of Chilwell in his follow through as he tried clearing a ball.
[su_panel color=”#000000″ border=”5px solid #cc0000″ radius=”2″]Referee Chris Kavanagh dismissed Balbuena with a red card much to the fury of David Moyes on the sidelines.[/su_panel]A 10-man West Ham side pushed for an unlikely equalizer but were restricted simply to long-range efforts as Chelsea held on to their one-goal lead to move to 58 points in the Premier League table, one behind 3rd placed Leicester who have one extra game in hand, though.
West Ham remain in the 5th with 55 points from their 33 outings so far. Tuchel having recorded his 19th win for the Blues now travel with his men to Spain's capital where they play Real Madrid in the first leg of the semi-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday.
West Ham playing in a 3-4-1-2 formation: Fabianski (goal), Coufal, Balbuena, Diop, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Noble, Soucek, Fornals, Lingard, Bowen
Subs: Benrahma, Lanzini, Johnson
Chelsea playing in a 3-4-2-1 formation: Mendy (goal), Rudiger, Silva, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Kante, Jorginho, Chilwell, Mount, Pulisic, Werner
Subs: Ziyech, James, Abraham